Wednesday, March 10 by sandy
Analyzing data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (Federal Highway Administration), the Tri-State Transportation Campaign shows a 4.4% decrease in driving since 2001. Walking and bicycling are up more than 25% and the use of mass transit is up more than 23%.
- NHTS data from from Tri-State Transportation Campaign
From the Federal Highway Administration:
“The NHTS serves as the nation’s inventory of personal travel. It is the only authoritative source of national data on personal travel behavior including purpose of the trip, means of transportation, trip length, day of week and month of the year, number of people on trip, and a host of other trip-making characteristics.”
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Posted in Bikeability, Pedestrian, Walkability |
Monday, March 8 by sandy
Alexander Road S-Curve
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced the Active Community Transportation (ACT) Act of 2010 on March 2. ACT transportation grants to communities would help fund sidewalks and bicycle paths, improve health, and create jobs. Funds would be set aside from the Surface Transportation Program.
According to Representative Blumenauer’s fact sheet “Currently bike and pedestrian trips make up over 12% of all transportation trips, yet receive less than 2% of federal funding. Providing funding for a competitive grant program for active transportation programs reduces the need for earmarking and ensures that the programs that receive funding are comprehensive, consistently supported, and the best use of limited taxpayer resources.”
Read More >>
You can help promote this legislation by writing to your congressional representatives and asking that they sign on as co-sponsors of the legislation. Ask your senators to introduce similar legislation in the Senate.
Write your Representative
Contact Your Senators
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Posted in Advocacy, Bikeability, Pedestrian, Walkability |
Saturday, March 6 by sandy
The January 2010 study by the National Center for Safe Routes to School found the following:
- Across all grades, the family car and school bus were the two most frequently used options for travel to/from school. Walking was a distant third. However, there are notable differences between how students in lower grades (K-5th) and higher grades (6th-8th) travel to school.
- The percentage of students traveling to or from school by foot or bicycle peaked in fifth grade at 24%. One reason it may drop off in later grades is that schools are farther from home.
- More students arrive at school in the family car than leave by car in the afternoon. The majority of those afternoon trips shifted to riding the school bus or walking.
- Safety factors, like traffic speed and volume and street crossing safety, were frequently selected as barriers by parents who live within one half mile of school but do not allow their children to walk or bicycle to/from school.
- Weather was only marginally related to students’ morning travel mode.
Read the complete study >>
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Posted in Bikeability, Pedestrian, Safety, Walkability |
Wednesday, March 3 by sandy
On July 10th 2010, 200+ riders and support crew members will depart for a grueling one-week, 500 mile marathon ride that begins in Charlottesville,VA and end at Quaker Bridge Mall.
The goal:
To raise money necessary to keep open the doors of Trenton-based Anchor House. Your support will help to sustain its many programs available to the thousands of kids and their families whose lives that have been impacted by Anchor House for 32 years.
Anchor House, Inc. is a multi-service agency for runaway, homeless, abused, and at-risk youth and their families. For the past 30 years, Anchor House has committed its efforts to providing comprehensive, life-saving assistance to our most vulnerable population.
In 2009, several WWBPA members, including Ken Carlson, Jerry Foster, and Daryl McMillan, participated in the ride. You can read more about this year’s ride here.
To sign up (applications are due by March 5) or to sponsor the riders, go to anchorhouseride.org.
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Posted in Anchor House Ride, Bicycling Trip |
Tuesday, March 2 by sandy
Municipal Building Crosswalk
The following letter was sent to Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and Township Council members:
This year on July 26th, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Some time after passage of the ADA, on July 13, 1992, the Township of West Windsor adopted a resolution approving its ADA Transition Plan (the Plan), as required by federal law. The Plan documented the items of ADA non-compliance and undertook to rectify them all by January 26, 1995, also as required by federal law.
In the last month, some West Windsor residents did a partial audit to determine which items in the Plan had been rectified, which had not, and which items post-dating the Plan, and therefore also post-dating the passage of the ADA, were still not ADA-compliant. I present to you our report. I assume that you will not grant me time to go through the report item by item at this time, but I will summarize by saying that there are major violations with virtually all the sites inspected, including the very stepped platform upon which you are seated, and which the Township pledged to make wheelchair-accessible by January 26, 1995, over fifteen years ago.
I have the following questions:
When can we expect these and other non-compliant items to be rectified? Until they are rectified, the Township is in violation of federal law.- The Plan has never been updated. When does the Township intend to update its Plan, as required by the ADA? The law requires that “the plan should be updated periodically.” I suspect that 18 years is a rather greater interval than Congress had intended.
- Will the Township create an independent Accessibility Committee, as several New Jersey Townships have done, to monitor its ADA compliance, ensure that such lapses do not reoccur, and promote the accessibility needs of its disabled residents and visitors? It would be appropriate for this committee to be formed and functioning well before the July 26th ADA anniversary date.
- Will the Township and its officials, to show its commitment to the ADA, join with other local, state and federal government officials in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the signing of the ADA this July 26th, 2010?
Respectfully,
Michael Ogg
Read the full report: 2010 Assessment of the Township of West Windsor, NJ, ADA Compliance
Read the West Windsor 1992 ADA Transition Plan
Read news reports:
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Posted in Advocacy, Disabilities |
Sunday, February 28 by JerryFoster
Andy Clarke NJ Bike Summit 2010 Denville
The first New Jersey Bike Summit was held in Denville on Saturday February 27. About 150 attendees, including four from the WWBPA, heard the latest about what’s happening in the world of bicycle (and pedestrian!) advocacy. There was even a cameo appearance by the Bike Lane Fairy!
National speakers included Andy Clarke of the League of American Bicyclists, Tim Blumenthal of Bikes Belong, Sharon Roerty of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking and Jeff Miller of the Alliance for Biking and Walking.
New Jersey Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, sponsor of the three-foot safe passing bill, which was passed by the Assembly last year but died in the Senate Transportation committee, addressed the group about legislative matters. Sheree Davis, who leads NJ DOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian program and is a key advocate within NJDOT, followed up with the state of the state from NJDOT’s perspective, including the new Complete Streets policy.
Success stories were related by many groups, including our own President Chris Scherer and Laura Torchio of Bike/Walk Montclair, who first showed pictures of the elusive Bike Lane Fairy at an event there. But would she make an appearance?
The courtroom in Denville’s Town Hall was sold out, and the agenda was very full, including in-depth presentations about “complete streets” by Mike Dannemiller of the RBA Group and bicycling education by Leigh Ann Von Hagen of Rutgers’ Voorhees Transportation Center. Read more about the day here.
Brendan Poh of the New Jersey Bicycle Coalition did a fantastic job organizing and putting on the event. It was a lot of work, and we all thank you and look forward to next year.
And the Bike Lane Fairy? We had to wait outside the room until the very end, but she made a brief appearance, posing for her many admirers. Alas, this reporter’s camera batteries were dead. To see her, click here.
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Posted in Advocacy |
Saturday, February 27 by silvia
Philadelphia and South Jersey came up big in the stimulus-money sweepstakes. A $23 million grant will help complete a network of biking and walking trails throughout the region, focused on connections to urban hubs in Philadelphia and Camden. It will fund several missing links on the popular Schuylkill River Trail, links in Camden to the Ben Franklin Bridge and parts of the East Coast Greenway in Pennyslvania. Read more.
Just how tough was it to get funded? Only 51 projects (3% of those submitted) were selected. Only two bicycle/pedestrian networks were funded. Unfortunately, $13 million sought for bike paths in Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties didn’t get approved. There is still more work to do before a route from Trenton to Philadelphia is completed.
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Posted in Advocacy, Bicycle routes, Bikeability, East Coast Greenway, Walkability |
Friday, February 26 by JerryFoster
In December 2009, the New Jersey Department of Transportation adopted a Complete Streets policy, designed to ensure that roadways are designed with all potential users in mind.
According to the National Complete Streets Coalition, such policies can offer many benefits in all communities, regardless of size or location.
Complete streets make economic sense. A balanced transportation system that includes complete streets can bolster economic growth and stability by providing accessible and efficient connections between residences, schools, parks, public transportation, offices, and retail destinations.
Complete streets improve safety by reducing crashes through safety improvements. One study found that designing for pedestrian travel by installing raised medians and redesigning intersections and sidewalks reduced pedestrian risk by 28%.
Complete streets encourage more walking and bicycling. Public health experts are encouraging walking and bicycling as a response to the obesity epidemic, and complete streets can help. One study found that 43 percent of people with safe places to walk within 10 minutes of home met recommended activity levels, while just 27% of those without safe places to walk were active enough.
Complete streets can help ease transportation woes. Streets that provide travel choices can give people the option to avoid traffic jams, and increase the overall capacity of the transportation network. Several smaller cities have adopted complete streets policies as one strategy to increase the overall capacity of their transportation network and reduce congestion.
Complete streets help children. Streets that provide room for bicycling and walking help children get physical activity and gain independence. More children walk to school where there are sidewalks, and children who have and use safe walking and bicycling routes have a more positive view of their neighborhood. Safe Routes to School programs, gaining in popularity across the country, will benefit from complete streets policies that help turn all routes into safe routes.
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Posted in Advocacy, Bikeability, Road Signs, Safety, Speed limits, Walkability |
Thursday, February 25 by JerryFoster
Mercer County Park XC Skiing
We regret to have to cancel tonight’s meeting, but weather and safety concerns prevail. The new annual meeting date will be announced in the near future. In the meantime, please send us an email with any questions or concerns, and enjoy the snow!
We are working to reschedule with Andy Clarke, our keynote speaker, who leads the League of American Bicyclists, the oldest organized bicycling organization in the country. The League was founded as the League of American Wheelmen in 1880. Bicyclists, known then as “wheelmen”, were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians.
The agenda this year will also feature an optional interactive session, where WWBPA Trustees will collect your ideas for making West Windsor more a more bicycle and pedestrian friendly community.
Stay tuned – we hope everyone will be able to make the new date!
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Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, February 23 by silvia
1. Hear Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists, explain why creating a bicycle-friendly community is a good economic-development strategy and boosts property values.
2. Brainstorm about ways the WWBPA can achieve its goals. This year, we want to expand our popular “Walk to Hawk” on International Walk to School Day to other schools, highlight existing safe walking and bicycling routes and advocate for missing links. What do you want to see on the list?
Walk to Hawk, October 2008
The WWBPA’s annual meeting begins at 7:30 pm on Thursday February 25 at the West Windsor Municipal Center, 271 Clarksville Road. We need your support, and your ideas! Together, we can make our vision of a safer community for bicyclists and and pedestrians — for you, your family, your friends and neighbors — a reality.
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Posted in Advocacy |
